John Fredrick Parker
Donor
Mittelmächte Siegreich
a WWI TL
General Aleksei Alekseevich Brusilov wondered if he had finally finally reached his breaking point. In all his correspondences with his wife, he had always expressed his hope, his certainty, that God would protect Mother Russia and that his country would prevail against the invaders. In the many months since the war broke out, he had learned just how difficult that would be, not least of which was the shocking levels of nepotism and incompetence in the military leadership. (When he was promoted to command of the Southwest forces, he had initially thought it was due to his merit on the field; only later did he learn it was because he had socialized with an important officer shortly before.) But still he had faith, and with his new command, he expected to have freedom of action to adopt new tactics and strategies that he believed could win crush Austro-Hungary and win Russia and her allies the war.
And then he received the memo. The glorious Tsar, it seemed, was ordering his general to adopt the use of long range artillery against enemy forces; this would completely unravel his plans to surprise them by getting as close as possible before attacking. Brusilov tried to calm himself; he knew his tactical ideas were unprecedented, yes, but clearly so was the war itself. Moreover, his planned offensive had already been discussed with and approved by the Tsar; why was the monarch micromanging now? He could already guess, though his suspicions would not be confirmed until months later: General Chief of Staff Mikhail Alekseyev and General Alexei Evert. No doubt the more established commanders (who had opposed going on the offensive in the first place) had convinced Nicholas that only traditional artillery could hope in making a breakthrough; and his Imperial Majesty, not being remotely familiar with the art of war, deferred to his judgement.
Brusilov was calm now. His considerations of directly disobeying his Emperor's instructions were now pushed from his mind; if His Majesty wished him to drive back the Hapsburg army using long range artillery, that is what he would do. He would do his duty, the Tsar would do his, and God would protect Mother Russia and banish the invaders; he had faith.
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(taken from Fall of the Russian Empire by Orlando Figes)
The failure of the June offense sealed the Tsardom's fate. In ascending order of importance: first, the hopes of relieving the Austrian offensive near Asiago and the German offensive on Verdun were put off yet again (by the time the British managed to put sufficient pressure on Germany with the costly Battle of the Somme, it was already too late the fortresses above the city had fallen, dooming French forces to a costly campaign to relieve it). Second, hopes for bringing Romania into the war on the side of the Entente were dashed, and this time they would not rise again. Thirdly, it furhter demoralized Russian troops, where desertion and mutinies only became more common. This demoralization also spread to forces on the homefront, including the cossack troops in Petrograd, a detail which would prove crucial in a matter of months. And fourth, and most importantly, it seemed confirm whispers that now became a common knowledge conspiracy theory: that the “German” Tsarina and Rasputin were sabotaging the Russian war effort...
“The Romanov dynasty” one future historian wrote “was now sitting atop a pile of unstable artillery and drenched in fuel. It would take only the tiniest spark to set them ablaze and reduce the monarchy to ash.” That spark came on October 28, 1916...
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(taken from Willy: The Reign of Kaiser Wilhelm II by Edmund Morris)
Talk of replacing Falkenhayn came again around the time of the Crown Prince's funeral -- though none dared wonder too loudly, much less in public print, there was talk of whether the Kaiser shared his Chief of Staff's estimation of Verdun as a success. True, the average German civilian didn't know that, in fact, the operational objectives of the offensive in France were actually quite modest, meant to bleed France into submission; and, it could not be denied, France had been made to pay dearly for their fortress city, nearly twice as many as Germany did to make them pay it. But they had not lost a prince; and anyway, French political leadership had proven more resilient than German leaders had estimated, so no western armistace was forthcoming, at least for the moment.
What saved Falkenhayn were developments in the east, just before the great battles in the west began winding down...
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So here it is -- my first attempt at a TL in over a year. Like my attempts in the past, I go into this not sure how far I will get; if, if I manage to make it to 1920, I'd likely consider that a good cut off point for the thread, and maybe, maybe doing sequel threads down the road. But I wouldn't bet on even making it that far.
That said, I've been on this WWI kick now for awhile, so I thought I'd try to build something out of it. I do have general ideas of where I want this to go, though -- the discussions on the board have been really helpful in clarifying my thoughts, so much thanks to everyone who gave feedback.
OK then, let's see where this goes.
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